Science Technology Competition (North America)

Toshiba has organized the ExploraVision Awards (EVA), a science and technology contest for U.S. and Canadian students from kindergarten through high school, in collaboration with the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) since 1992.

Prize Winning Teams, and Officials

EVA is a science technology contest with a dream, predicting future technologies that might be realized in 20 years based on existing science and technology. Entering its 24th year of existence this year, EVA has very long history of any activity conducted by a Japanese company to support science education in the U.S. About 360,000 students have participated so far, and 5,054 teams and 15,585 children subscribed for the contest this year.

Every year, this competition produces many and rich ideas, more imaginative than those of adults, such as "A pacemaker that runs on the patient's own energy" and "A magic tablet that solves the problem of fast increasing waste electronic components".

Schedule

Children form teams with their teachers, and commence entry procedures from September. For each theme, the teams study the existing science and technology, and using this as a base propose a technology that they would like to see realized in 20 years.
The proposals are then reviewed, and in March the best 24 teams are selected as Regional Winners. Following this, the proposals made by the Regional Winners are published on the EVA website, and in April four teams are selected to receive First Prize, and another four teams are awarded Second Prize. In June, the students in these eight teams, together with their teachers and families, are brought to Washington, DC for the awards event (EVA Weekend).

Awards Event

On the day before the awards ceremony, the teams visit the offices of their local congressmen and senators and present their prizewinning reports.

Senator Barack Obama (2006)

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (2007)

Senator Hillary Clinton (2003)

On the morning of the awards ceremony, each team is interviewed by its local television station, appearing live on the morning news.
They have the opportunity to explain their projects to VIPs and the media.
Politicians and celebrities from the U.S. and Canada send congratulatory letters and videos.
The prizewinning students are congratulated by VIPs at the awards party.

The New York team appearing on a TV program "Satellite Media Tour"

The winners from New York team explaining their project to VIPs

M.D. Eleanor Ross as a special guest who is a EVA winner in 1995 making a speech to encourage winners

Topics

Declared June 10, the day of the awards ceremony, we received the letter of appreciation from the Washington, D.C. mayor.

2016 Prizewinners

1st Place Winners

GRADES K1-3 (Kindergarten to 3rd year elementary school)

Theme: The Tick Detective - Creating a scanning device to detect the presence of a deer tick on the human Body
School: Bayville Intermediate - Bayville, NY
The Tick Detective is to create a scanning device that will detect the presence of a deer tick on the human body. These ticks can be as small as a speck of black pepper making detection extremely difficult. In order to detect the tick, our research involved finding out what types of body fluids are given off and what the components are. Since deer ticks secrete a substance called squalene when attaching to the host, research has shown that the antennae of fire ants can detect this and give off an electrical signal. This technology can very possibly be used in a hand held scanner. It is well known that this is an insect that can transmit serious diseases to humans such as Lyme disease. The sooner the tick is found, the chances of prevention or a cure of this disease is greatly improved.

GRADES K4-6 (4th to 6th year elementary school students)

Theme: Hubble NEST "Next Elimination of Space Trash"
School: Locust Valley Intermediate School - Locust Valley, NY
There is an alarming amount of space junk traveling in LEO (Lower Earth Orbit) and it is past time that this mess is cleaned up. Space debris, traveling at speeds over 17,000 mph, threatens satellites and spacecrafts orbiting in this area. Our innovation, the Hubble Space Telescope NEST (Next Elimination of Space Trash), will accomplish this cleanup task and more, with the help from the Hubble Telescope and robotic drones. Our innovation also demonstrates ways to recycle in space, by repurposing the Hubble Telescope and by sending reusable collected parts back to Earth. As we continue to further explore our universe, space traffic will increase, and more satellites will be added to provide better services and information. The Hubble NEST is the answer for cleaning up garbage and making space environment safe.

GRADES K7-9 (1st to 3rd year junior high school)

Theme: Bulletproof Vests
School: Rothesay Netherwood School - Rothesay, NB
Our future technology, bulletproof clothing, has the potential to revolutionize bullet safety. This magnesium infused metal in our bullet resistant clothing is thirty times stronger than the Kevlar fibers used in current vests. It is also much lighter, flexible, and more breathable than the current vests. The magnesium infused metal has a world record yield strength and the highest magnesium heat resistance and it stands up to most extreme conditions, making it good for the army. Another good component is that it protects more than the vital organs. The clothing that we have created is made up of magnesium that is weaved together with silicon carbide nanoparticles. The clothing, which could be a vest, gloves, pants, etc, would be made of many layers of our material, with cotton as a base for comfort reasons. This would provide maximum security for our officers and soldiers who risk their lives everyday.

GRADES K10-12 (1st to 3rd year high school)

Theme: BEISight: Bionic Eye Implant for Sight
School: University Laboratory High School - Urbana, IL
The Bionic Eye Implant for Sight (BEISight) is a visual prosthesis designed for longterm use by people who have damaged or deteriorating retinas. It replaces the majority of the eyeball with a partially removable prosthetic containing a clear solar panel, two cylindrical cameras, and an image-to-electrical signal converter that sends signals across magnets to an electrode array implanted in the epiretinal membrane. The technology builds upon existing retinal prostheses by dramatically increasing the number of electrodes in the array implanted behind the retina, thereby improving the level of detail that users are able to discern from phosphene images. Combined with recent innovations in solar panel technology, BEISight will fuse compactness, efficiency, and durability with an overall higher quality visual experience.

2nd Place Winners

GRADES K1-3 (Kindergarten to 3rd year elementary school)

Theme: Triple-E: Edible, Electrolyte Balanced, Eco-Friendly Water Bottle
School: Chapman Hill - Salem, OR
Every person needs to drink water. In countries all over the world people are buying bottled water. Water in bottles cost a lot more and there is no evidence that this water is better for you. According to the Environmental Health Journal, a chemical called BPA in water bottles cause health problems. Bottled water also uses a lot of resources. Only one in five bottles are recycled. That means that plastic waste ends up in the water. When plastic starts to break down, animals eat it and get sick or die. Cleaning up the mess costs a lot. Our solution, is the Triple-E water bottle that uses an app to program a 3D printer to make your own personalized, edible water bottle with electrolytes that match what your body needs each day.

GRADES K4-6 (4th to 6th year elementary school students)

Theme: A.P.P. "Anti-Paralysis Procedure"
School: The Village School - Houston, TX
"Will my loved one ever move again?" Millions of families ask this question each year. Currently about 5.6 million people are paralyzed in America, that is about 1 in 50 Americans. Since the beginning of mankind, paralysis has claimed the lives of millions. The first known written cases of paralysis were in ancient Egypt. In recent years, scientists have developed technology that has helped just a few Americans move parts of their body they were not able to before, but this technology has its limits. Something else recently discovered is that crayfish can turn blood cells into neurons. We think that if we could harvest the neuron regenerating attributes from crayfish stem cells and safely merge that with human stem cells, that it could cure the millions whose lives have been touched by paralysis.

GRADES K7-9 (1st to 3rd year junior high school)

Theme: The VISOR: A Neuro-olfaction Device for Perceiving Smell Remotely
School: Arlington High School - Lagrangeville, NY
Technology for the transition of light and sound over long distances, e.g. TV and radio, has revolutionized society. On the contrary, the technology to perceive a smell remotely is in its infancy, and has severe limitations such as latency, residual and infidelity. A neuro-olfactory device named the VISOR is described in this article. Relying on electrodes positioned over the olfactory blub, the VISOR can sense neural signals triggered by smell, and encode the signal into a file. The internet, Bluetooth, and other data transfer mechanisms can transfer this file to a distant VISOR where it can be decoded into electric waveforms. The VISOR recreates smell by electrically stimulating the olfactory bulb. This disruptive breakthrough overcomes shortcomings in prior arts. The VISOR can have profound impacts on education, entertainment, collaboration, e-commerce, rehabilitation and law enforcement.

GRADES K10-12 (1st to 3rd year high school)

Theme: Intra-Neuromuscular Cellular Regeneration Promoter
School: Plainview Old Bethpage JFK HS - Plainview, NY
Nerve damage and neurodegenerative disorders like Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Multiple Sclerosis are infamous for their incurable nature. Neurons, being the highly specialized cells as they are, undergo virtually no cellular division, rendering reduced or diseased cell populations with no natural method of regeneration or healing. Through the future technology we envision, we aim to improve our ability to apply modern stem cell research towards this problem in an efficient and highly potent manner. Our technology consists of a personalized mesh lattice implant, designed to be surgically inserted into a damaged tissue where it can release biochemical epigenetic factors to promote cell reprogramming into pluripotent stem cells and act as a structural guide for new cell growth. We hope that this technology will not only provide a viable treatment for neurodegeneration, but also serve to alleviate debilitating general tissue damage from injury and disease as well.